Memories In Isvan
by CarolineKenello
Summary: A Treasury of short stories about Gray's life with his parents in Isvan before Deliora's attack. He will get older as chapters are added.
1. Snowball Fights

**Author's Note:**

 **Mnemosyne's Elegy: thanks for the tips, I've re edited this, hopefully it's a bit better. Thanks so much for reading or your great Reveiw!**

 **LoVeYoUhOnNy: Thanks so much for favoriting and following!**

 **Manguepassion: Thanks so much for following!**

 **Thanks for reading, everyone.**

 **Disclamier: I Don't own Fairy Tail**

A man with black hair trudged though the snow. After a long day at work he was eager to get back home to his wife and son. He approached the steps and reached for the handle and hurriedly opened it excited to finally be home with his family in their relaxing-

"Dad!" A four-year-old Gray exclaimed as he ran towards his dad.

The four-year-old jumped into the man's arms, and started to chatter away about his and his mom's day.

"Welcome home Silver," Mika said smiling as she followed Gray out of the kitchen to greet her husband.

"I missed you all day!" Gray exclaimed.

"Nice to be home, I missed you both all day as well." Silver replied, smiling at Mika while ruffling his sons hair.

"Dad can we play in the snow now?" Gray asked eagerly.

"Gray, your dad just got home, why don't you let him get settled in before dragging him back outside again?" Mika suggested to the four-year-old.

"Don't worry Mika, I don't mind." Silver replied with a small laugh, then he turned to the boy still in his arms, "We're going to have so much fun! Our patience has paid off. Come on, let's get your stuff on."

Silver sat Gray down on a bench as he got to work putting the boys snow stuff on. He smiled and glanced up at his wife.

"What are you waiting for? Don't tell me you're not coming with us?" Silver asked, putting on his sad puppy face act.

Mika smiled but hesitated, "don't you want something to eat and drink after your long day?" She asked.

"Eat and drink? It's too early for dinner," Silver started, and when he saw Gray all ready waiting hopefully by the door he added, "and we have to get going before it gets too dark out! Come on Mika! You get your stuff on and we'll meet you outside!"

"Yeah! Hurry up mama! We gotta go!" Gray exclaimed as he started grabbing his mothers boots off the shelf, only causing himself to fall back into his dad's leg due to his thick snow pants.

Mika took her boots from Gray and started getting ready.

"Come on!" Gray urged impatiently.

"We'll wait outside." Silver said as he lifted Gray and carried him outside.

"I'll be right out!" Mika called.

After they left the house Silver placed Gray on the ground.

"What do you wanna do first, Chibi?" Silver asked.

"I'm gonna make you and mama!" Gray announced after a moment.

Gray immediately picked up some snow and tried to squeeze it into a ball, then he sat down and began rolling it in the snow. Silver smiled as he watched his son try to get the snowball bigger.

"He practiced his snowballs a lot today." Mika said as she walked up to stand beside Silver.

"He sure has improved." Silver said proudly.

"Sure has. We had a little snow ball fight this morning too." Mika told him.

"Cool! I wish I'd been there." Silver said wistfully.

"Go help him make snowmen." Mika said elbowing Silver playfully.

"Got it!" Silver said going over to kneel beside Gray.

"Where do you want to put him?" Silver asked as the two boys finished the bottom snowball for the snowman's body.

"Over...here!" Gray called as he pointed to the spot.

"Perfect." Mika said.

After Silver placed the large snowball where Gray had directed, Mika stepped forward and placed another big snow ball on top.

"Nice job!" Silver said.

"Yeah!" Gray exclaimed.

Then Mika stuck two twigs into the sides for arms. Soon after, Gray hurriedly started taking his scarf off, before Mika knelt in front of him.

"You're going to get cold Gray, I brought a spare." Mika said handing the scarf to Gray.

Gray took the scarf and Mika lifted him and helped him wrap it around the snowman's neck.

Then Silver placed some stones into the front of the top snowball, making it into eyes and a mouth. Mika then helped Gray get a carrot for its nose. An hour past and they finally had three different snowmen made.

"I do think I look pretty cool, don't you think Mika?" Silver asked Mika jokingly as they admired the three snowman versions of themselves.

Mika smiled and nodded slightly.

"I think you look awesome!" Gray exclaimed, "and mom looks really pretty and I'm really cool too."

Then Gray noticed the big icicles hanging down a tree branch.

"Mom! Dad!" Gray called as he tried to reach for the icicles.

Mika and Silver came over and Silver pulled down three, and handed one to Gray and one to Mika and kept one for himself.

After a few minutes Mika turned to Silver.

"It's starting to get a little late. I think I'm going to go make us some dinner now." Mika said.

"Need any help?" Silver asked.

"Don't go yet!" Gray protested.

"No, I'm okay. Why don't you two play a little longer and I'll call you both when it's done. Unless you two get too cold and come in sooner." Mika answered.

"Can we stay out?" Gray asked excitedly pulling at his dad's coat. "Sure." Silver replied.

Mika leaned closer to Silver, thinking it was a hug, Silver reached to hug her, when he felt something cold suddenly fall down the back of his coat.

"Hey!" Silver exclaimed as Mika smiled at them both and started to hurry inside.

Gray started laughing as his dad tried to chase after Mika while trying to get the snow out of his shirt. Mika ran and eventually reached the porch, Silver tossed a snowball at her but Mika quickly went behind the glass door and closed it.

Silver frowned at her, while she just smiled innocently and started towards the kitchen to start making dinner.

"Hrmph..." Silver grumbled.

"Mom beat you." Gray said from behind Silver.

Silver smiled, and after a short moment turned to Gray, and startled as he saw Gray had his arms full of snowballs.

"Come on, you wouldn't hit me with those would you? You're not on your naughty mother's side are you?" Silver asked playfully, his elbow up and his hand scratching the back of his head, mostly in habit but also trying to find the almost melted snow that Mika had dropped in his coat.

Silver was answered with a snowball flying towards him and hitting his knee and falling down into his boot. Gray smirked.

"You're the baddie this time!" Gray exclaimed as he threw his last snowball at Silver and then broke into a run.

Silver made a snowball and ran after Gray. Gray dodged behind a tree, and Silver slowed to a stop.

"Gray? Where'd you go?" He said with a fake panic in his voice, "Your mom will be so mad at me for losing you! Please come out! Where'd you go?"

Gray only knelt down and made two more snowballs.

"Where are you?" Silver called as he looked behind several trees and bushes.

From behind the tree Gray smirked and his body shook from held in laughter. Then he peeked out of the side of the tree. Silver was looking through a bush. Now was Gray's chance.

Gray broke into a run and threw a snowball right on top of Silver's head.

"Hey!" Silver exclaimed.

Gray began running again, heading for the outside bench. Silver laughed watching his son go. Then he made another snowball and tossed it towards Gray expecting it to fly passed the boy or hit his shoulder. But Gray turned his head at the worst moment to check to see if Silver was chasing him, and the snowball hit him right in the face.

Silver rushed over to the now crying four-year-old.

"I'm sorry!" Silver cried, as he tried to brush the snow off Gray's face. "I'm so sorry!" Silver exclaimed.

Gray continued to cry and Silver glanced at the door to the house. Mika was going to be so mad at him.

"Hey Gray, look!" Silver said as he put together a mini snowman and held it out to Gray. "Come on please stop crying..." Silver said fretfully. "Are you okay?" Silver asked looking worriedly at his sons crying face. "Come on little guy, here's a snowman!"

Gray didn't take the snowman. Silver quickly grabbed an icicle.

"Want this? You can eat it all by yourself since your getting to be such a big boy!" Silver offered.

But Gray showed no interest in either the snowman nor the icicle and looked at his dad as tears poured down his face.

Silver picked Gray up and hugged him.

"I'm really sorry. I didn't mean for it to hit you in the face. Please stop crying. Then we can go inside and we can have some hot chocolate! Would you like that?" Silver asked desperately.

Gray tried to wipe away his tears but the movement caused some of the snow to fall further into his coat making him shiver. Then Silver placed him down and knelt in front of him.

"Here, do you want to get daddy back?" Silver asked, handing the boy a snowball, hoping if he could get Gray to have fun again then he might look happy enough that Mika wouldn't have to find out about his terrible mistake.

Gray sniffled and wiped the tears away again. He took the snowball and shoved it into Silver's hair. Silver leaned back as Gray climbed onto him pushing him into a laying down position in the snow.

"Well, this is actually pretty cozy. You cozy too?" Silver asked as he lay in the cold snow with Gray sitting on his chest.

Gray didn't reply right away, instead he tried pulling on the zipper of his dad's coat, but with his mittens on he had little success. Not sure what Gray was doing, and willing to do just about anything to cheer Gray up, Silver unzipped his coat and watched to see what Gray was going to do.

Gray crawled onto Silver more, adjusting his position until he was laying directly on top of Silver, and then he pulled the sides of Silver's coat as close to him as possible, so he was nearly in Silver's coat with him. The two of them lay there in silence for a few moments until Gray pointed up at the dark sky.

"Yeah, it got dark pretty fast didn't it?" Silver asked trying to see what Gray was pointing at.

"Stars and the moon." Gray said turning slightly to glance at his dad.

"Yeah, they're pretty, aren't they?" Silver asked glancing at Gray who was finally not crying.

Gray nodded but started shivering more. Feeling Gray shiver, Silver wrapped his arms around the four-year-old. After a moment Silver, holding tightly to Gray, stood up and brushed some of the snow off of them.

"Hey Gray?" Silver asked nervously.

"Yeah?" Gray asked quietly.

"Are you mad at me?" Silver asked his eyes sad and worried looking.

"No." Gray answered shaking his head vigorously.

Silver smiled and Gray reached his arms out and hugged his dad, who hugged him back.

"Silver! Gray! I've finished making dinner!" Mika called from the front door.

"Be there in just a second Mika!" Silver called. "Are you feeling better and ready to go eat some dinner?" Silver asked.

To Silver's surprise Gray shook his head.

"But you said I could have hot chocolate. Not dinner." Gray pouted.

Silver smiled slightly.

"You can have both. Just...please don't tell your mom about my bad aim?" Silver answered hopefully.

He didn't want to have to explain to Mika how he'd messed up their snowball fight and accidentally made his little boy cry.

"Both?! Yeah!" Gray exclaimed, hugging tightly onto his dad, as his dad smiled and starting carrying him into the house.

The two went inside and had hot chocolate and a nice dinner with Mika and the three went on about all the fun they had, leaving out the unfortunate accident. When they were done, they all went to the bedroom, and Mika and Silver tucked a tired Gray in, in the middle of the bed, nestled safely between Silver and Mika, after changing him into his pyjamas and brushing his teeth and hugging him goodnight. Then Silver and Mika did some reading. After Mika had put the book away and gone to sleep, Silver lay back and turned to the sleeping boy.

"I'm sorry, and thanks for not telling on me. I love you little guy." Silver whispered.

Gray peeked one eye open, startling Silver who was now trying to figure out if he woke the kid or if Gray had ever actually been sleeping. "I love you too...and mommy's good at reading..." Gray whispered sleepily.

Had he been listening to the chapter book the whole time? Silver wondered, unsure as to whether Gray would even understand the story.

Silver smiled. "Goodnight Gray."

"Goodnight dad..." Gray said as he cuddled close to his parents, "night..."


	2. Bad Soup

**Thanks everyone for reading!**

 **mdelphin: thanks for following and for your nice review. I hope you enjoy this next chapter.**

 **Revlis Charm: thanks for reading and following!**

 **and everyone else I believe I thanked on the first chapter for those of you who may not have seen that update.**

 **Thanks again to everyone for the great reviews, for favoriting and following. It means a lot to me so thanks for just reading it!**

 **I hope you all enjoy this next chapter.**

 **if anyone has any requests of a event or anything they'd like to have happen in this, feel free to make requests, and I'll look into writing special request chapters!**

 **i hope you all have a great day! Thanks for reading!**

 **Disclaimer: I still don't own Fairy Tail or any of its characters.**

It was a beautiful bright summer day in a medium-sized village in The Land Of Isvan.

The sun was shining brightly and there was a nice cool summer breeze that made the branches on the trees sway.

"Higher daddy!" A four-year-old Gray cried happily from on the small swing

Silver grinned at his son.

It had been such a beautiful day, so Mika and Silver had decided to take Gray to the park.

"Are you sure, Gray?" Silver asked. "I don't want to push you too high, don't want you to get scared."

"Higher!" Gray insisted.

Silver hesitated, wondering if it was such a good idea. He didn't want Gray to get scared, but he also wanted Gray to have tons of fun.

Silver glanced at Mika, considering whether or not he should ask her opinion on it. Sure, Gray was going pretty slow, but he was only four years old. What if he accidentally pushed it too high?

"Hey Mika?" Silver called.

Mika looked over in her husbands direction.

"Yeah?" She replied.

"The Chibi wants to go higher. Do you think that's okay?" Silver asked.

Mika couldn't help but laugh. Silver sounded so unsure, so cautious, but something about the way he said it made him sound almost like a kid.

Maybe it was just because Silver often tended to ask her before he did something bigger or newer with Gray.

"Mika, he's getting impatient," Silver called again.

"He's four Silver, he can handle higher than that, I'm sure." Mika replied with a laugh.

Sometimes she felt like the only adult in their little family.

But it wasn't necessarily a bad thing; she loved how playful and childish Silver could be sometimes. She found it funny.

Luckily Silver had his serious side as well.

"Okay! Here we go!" Silver said enthusiastically as he pushed Gray's swing higher.

"Yeah!" Gray laughed throwing his arms in the air.

Silver gave the swing another push.

Gray seemed to startle slightly, a slight look of fear in his eyes.

Silver reached frantically for the swing, but as soon as he grabbed it, Gray seemed fine again.

Silver sighed in relief.

That was close.

"Want to do something else now Gray?" Silver asked reaching for the little boy.

Gray seemed to grab onto the swing a bit, not really wanting to leave, but soon enough reached for Silver, who picked him up placing him on his shoulder.

"Where should we play now?" Silver asked, looking at his smiling son.

"Should we go to the climber or the hill?" Mika asked taking a step closer to the boy in Silver's arms.

"I wanna go on the swing again!" Gray exclaimed.

"You just got off the swing." Silver chuckled.

"Want to run to the hill Gray?" Mika asked.

Gray's eyes scanned around the park, and back up at his parents, and then to the hill.

Smiling, Gray broke into a run.

"That answers that." Mika muttered as she ran after Gray.

"I'm gonna beat you to the top mom!" Gray shouted.

Mika ran beside him making it look like she was really trying to win.

Silver watched them from the field, smiling at the two.

"I win!" Gray exclaimed as he collapsed tiredly at the top of the hill.

Mika soon reached the top seconds after and smiled down at the tired boy.

"You're getting really fast Gray." Mika said proudly.

Gray didn't reply. He was laying on his back on the top of the hill panting and looking up at Mika and the sky above them.

After Gray had caught his breath he sat up slowly.

"Where's daddy?" Gray asked as he looked up at his mother.

"Still down there." Mika replied pointing to Silver who was standing at the bottom of the hill.

Gray got up and started waving in Silver's direction.

"I'm taller than you dad!" Gray shouted.

Silver smirked, and waved back.

"Dad!" Gray shouted.

"Yeah?" Silver called up.

Mika watched as Gray took a deep breath.

"Daaad!" Gray shouted as loud as he could.

"What is it Gray?" Silver called up to him.

"Come on Silver, he wants you to come up here!" Mika explained.

"Alright!" Silver exclaimed.

Gray began to jump up and down in excitement, his previous exhaustion forgotten for the moment.

Silver ran up to the hill and just as he should've reached the top, he seemed to lean forward more and fell down onto his chest.

"Gray!" Silver shouted, reaching a hand out to the boy. "I'm falling down the mountain!" He exclaimed, a fake look of urgency displayed on his face.

Gray grinned and quickly knelt down and grasped his father's outstretched hand.

Mika smiled at their antics. Silver and his acting. At least they got a lot of fun out of it.

"Mommy!" Gray shouted looking up at her desperately. "He's gonna fall!"

Mika felt a pang of worry from hearing her boy's almost frightened sounding voice.

Was he really worried Silver would fall down the hill?

Mika smiled gently and helped Gray pull Silver up to his feet.

"Phew... Thank you! That could've ended badly huh?" Silver said smiling at his wife and son.

"We saved you!" Gray exclaimed as he hugged Silver's leg tightly.

Silver smiled mischievously, and Mika looked at him with a sort of half smile and another look that seemed like she may not have thought the acting was a good idea that time. Since Gray had looked scared or worried for Silver when it was happening.

Silver simply gave her his most innocent look he could muster.

Mika smiled.

Mika and Silver turned to glance at Gray, only to find he was laying around on the ground again.

"You ready to head home Gray?" Mika asked.

Gray nodded slightly, and got up. Then Gray walked over and sat on his father's foot, wrapping his arms and legs around his leg to stay on.

Silver smiled.

"Maybe I should carry you down the hill before you hitch a ride on my foot, okay Gray?" Silver suggested.

Gray smiled up at him brightly.

Silver reached down and picked up the four-year-old and placed him on his back holding him there safely.

"Ready for your horse ride?" Silver asked.

"Yeah!" Gray exclaimed.

"Alright, once your mom says go, we'll run. Okay?" Silver explained, glancing at Mika.

"Ready, set, go!" Mika said.

Silver ran down the hill, holding Gray tightly.

Mika soon started to run down the hill to join them as well.

Silver slowed to a stop at the bottom of the hill.

"Was that fun Gray?" Mika asked as she stopped beside Silver.

Gray nodded slightly, followed by a yawn.

"Looks like we should probably be heading home now." Silver said.

"I want to go down the slide again." Gray said.

"One more time then." Silver agreed.

Silver and Mika walked back towards the park. Gray started to wriggle and Silver let him down. Gray grabbed his mom's hand and his dad's hand and ran forward trying to pull them along.

When they reached the slide Silver walked behind Gray as he climbed up onto the climber. Gray looked at the slide that Mika was waiting at the end of, and hesitated.

"You ready?" Silver asked.

Gray shook his head as he ran and continued to climb.

Silver followed immediately so he could make sure the four-year-old was safe. As he followed the little boy he wondered if Gray was just trying to play at the park longer and really wanted to go down the slide, or if he was stalling as much as he could so they didn't have to go home yet. Either way Silver didn't mind.

Gray continued to climb until he stopped at one of the higher areas of the play structure.

"Oh..." Silver realized. "I get it. You want to try the bigger one!" Silver exclaimed loud enough for Mika to hear and go to the right spot to catch Gray when he went down. "Is my strong little boy growing up?" Silver beamed happily.

Silver stepped closer to the four-year-old.

"I'll come down with you!" Silver insisted excitedly as he sat behind Gray at the top of the bigger slide.

"Are you gonna get scared?" Gray asked glancing up worriedly at Silver.

"Haha, I don't think so. No need to worry about me. Are you going to get scared?" Silver asked quietly so that only Gray could hear him.

Gray shook his head no.

"You sure?" Silver asked.

Gray smiled and nodded up and down.

"Alright. You ready?" Silver asked.

Gray nodded excitedly.

"Watch out Mika, we're both coming down!" Silver warned his wife.

Silver pushed off and Gray and him slid down the big slide. Gray immediately clung tightly onto Silver, but otherwise seemed to be having lots of fun.

Mika smiled proudly seeing Gray going down the bigger slide for the first time.

"Was that fun?" She asked the excited little boy when he reached the bottom of the slide with his dad.

"Yeah!" Gray cheered happily.

"You ready to go home?" Silver asked the two.

"Not yet..." Gray whined.

"Come on Gray, don't you want to get some dinner? I bet the soup will be done cooking soon. You can have bread to dip in it too if you want, it'll be yummy." Mika explained.

Gray stayed silent.

"Come on Gray, don't you want to grow up to be big and strong someday?" Silver asked.

Gray still looked disappointed, but after awhile they finally managed to get him to agree to come home.

The three walked back to their house.

"I don't want to go inside yet." Gray muttered.

"You don't? Why not?" Silver asked. "Your mom makes great soup."

"Waiting is boring." Gray answered.

"I'll call you two in when it's ready if you'd like?" Mika offered.

Silver looked at Gray who still seemed like he didn't want to go inside yet.

Silver shrugged, at least the little guy enjoyed being outside.

"Sure Mika. It might take awhile to get him to want to come in. He's just had too much fun out here, huh Gray?" Silver said turning to Gray,

Mika smiled, nodded, and went into the house.

"Mom don't go yet!" Gray protested, but Mika had already shut the door.

Gray sighed as he sat down on a bench by the garden.

Silver came over and sat beside him.

"What's wrong?" Silver asked.

"I don't want to stop playing or you or mommy to stop playing. Why does she have to go and ruin the fun we were having...?" Gray answered sadly.

"She's not trying to ruin the fun, Gray. She's just making some dinner. Do you want me to go work on dinner and tell your mom to come out and play with you?" Silver asked, silently hoping Gray wasn't going to go with his offer and make him go inside to check the soup and set the table when he could be out here playing with his little boy.

"Oh..." Gray sighed in understanding. "I wish we could always play." Gray whispered.

Silver smiled gently and ruffled the boy's hair.

Gray pulled an annoyed face but then smiled up at Silver.

"There's that smile." Silver said happily. "Want to play with me?" He asked.

Gray nodded eagerly. Silver looked around for something they could play with.

Silver picked up a stick and started to stir the water around that was in a large empty green flower pot. Then he realized what they could do.

"Hey Gray? Did you know that I can make soup just like your mom can?" Silver asked.

Gray shook his head side to side.

Silver smiled.

"Well, I can. Want to help?" He asked his son.

"Yeah! How do we do it?" Gray asked eager and curious sounding.

"Well..." Silver started scratching the back of his neck in habit. "We find ingredients around the garden and porch and we put it into this soup pot and we stir it all up." Silver explained.

"Okay!" Gray said as he got up and started grabbing leaves and things that were on the ground.

Gray and Silver placed leaves and sand and different plants into the pot. Silver passed Gray a stick to stir it with while he picked up a old spoon that had accidentally been left outside.

"This is fun." Gray said as he mixed in a few more leaves.

"Sure is." Silver agreed.

The two stirred the random plants and leaves and sand around in the flower pot as they ripped up leaves and continued to add more to the 'soup'. Until they had finally decided that it was done.

"What do you think? Looks yummy huh?" Silver said as seriously as he could.

Gray nodded eagerly.

"We're good cooks." Silver said smiling at Gray.

Gray smiled at Silver and then at the 'soup' they had made.

"Wanna be the first to try it?" Silver asked jokingly as he held out a spoonful.

Gray didn't nod or anything this time, instead he did something that caught Silver by surprise.

Gray suddenly leaned forward, opened his mouth, catching Silver off-guard, and before Silver could pull away or protest, the little boy's mouth went around the spoon and he drank the 'soup'.

"Ah! No Gray! I didn't mean to really eat that!" Silver exclaimed reaching at Gray's cheeks with his hand to try to get him to open his mouth. "Spit it out!"

But Gray just pulled a grossed-out face and stared at his panicking dad in confusion.

"That was yucky!" Gray pouted. "You said you were as good at makin' soup as mommy..."

"I didn't mean for you to really eat that!" Silver exclaimed.

Gray looked confused and still slightly grossed-out. Silver hoped that the 'soup' wouldn't make Gray sick. It _had_ only been one spoonful, although it was full of dirty old leaves and a bunch of other random things.

Silver quickly tried to remember the exact contents of the so-called soup they had made, trying to remember if there was anything in it that was really bad to eat.

The sand came to mind, and the few random plants that they hadn't known what they were as well.

Silver bit his lip nervously as he tried to figure out what to do.

"Come on Gray," Silver said sighing. "Let's go let your mom know about my bad soup, okay?" He told the little boy.

Gray nodded and reached for Silver who picked him up and carried him inside.

Silver explained the unfortunate soup incident to Mika and how he didn't mean for Gray to _really_ eat it, and how he was worried it might make him sick.

The two talked it over during dinner as the three of them eat, deciding they'd keep an eye on the little boy to make sure he was okay, even though Mika was pretty sure that Gray would be fine. But neither wanted to take any chances.

Meanwhile Gray ate the soup Mika made for them as his parents spoke about his dad's bad soup; it had tasted terrible and Gray wasn't sure he ever wanted to eat any soup that his dad made for him again, however fun it was to help make. But his mom's soup was always the best! Even though he often accidentally burned his mouth on it if it got too hot. But at least it tasted better than his dad's 'soup'.

Gray thought Silver was a bad cook. But he still loved how fun and playful his dad was and he still hoped that someday he could be just like him when he grows up.

He wanted to be cool and fun and strong when he was bigger, just like his dad, Silver Fullbuster.

For the rest of that evening Gray made sure to check his and his mom's water that Silver had passed out for any signs of gross 'soup'. Luckily it was still good like it usually was. Although he wasn't sure why his parents were laughing at him when he wanted to check their cups for any of the bad soup.

Grownups didn't make much sense.


	3. Pirates

**Sorry for being so late and slow at writing lately, things have been really rough. Hopefully this extra long chapter can make up for it.**

 **Thanks so much for all the follows and reviews and favorites on my stories, it's so great how so many people are enjoying them!**

 **For those of you waiting for Saving Them From The Darkness to be updated, the next chapter is almost finished and I hope to be able to write ahead a bit so that I'll be able to post more often for when things are busy or rough around here.**

 **Also, I'm considering doing a second part of Get Up since it seems to have a lot of people liking it. If I do, it would probably be them older and remembering it and they'd probably bring it up again so they could maybe get more understanding of some of it and have some of the parts that were sort of unfinished seeming due to Natsu not being able to know how Gray followed him and finished his jobs for him at that point in time, so if you guys want I might do that.**

 **I'm also working on another one that's not written on my profile that takes place after the manga ends that I'll hopefully finish soon.**

 **Anyway, sorry for the slow updates, and thanks so much for reading and have a nice day!**

 **Disclaimer: I still don't own Fairy Tail. And I'm not a pirate that's planning to steal it.**

Five-year-old Gray Fullbuster was digging through the toy box in search of something to play with. His mother Mika, was sitting beside him as he rummaged through the toys.

Gray pulled out some animal figures and started to play with them, but compared to the rest of the day where he and his mom had been playing together, this was getting boring fast.

There had to be some way to get her to play again...

Gray got up and stood beside the sofa where his mom was sitting. Very slowly, he leaned forwards to see what she was reading.

"Gray...this is too old for you." Mika said looking into the boy's dark eyes.

"I'm _boooorrrred_ mommy..." Gray said as he leaned yet again.

"Gray...we've played together for hours, I just wanted to read for a little while okay?" Mika explained.

"But mama..." Gray said as he peered over the book to look into his mother's eyes.

Mika tried to look away, she really did. But Gray's pleading eyes looked so sad and cute, and...

Mika sighed.

"Okay, Gray, but just for a little longer. Then I'm going to read my book. Understand?" Mika told him.

"Yeah!" Gray exclaimed as he jumped into the air happily and grabbed his mom's hand and ran leading her back to the toys.

Mika blinked as the young boy dragged her along to where some of his toys were kept. Was it just her or did he cheer up offaly fast?

Mika smiled slightly as she took a seat on the floor beside her young son.

"Okay, let's pick characters!" Gray announced happily.

Mika eyed the boy suspiciously. Was it just her or was something about the way Gray was behaving seem...odd and almost familiar...

"You be this one. I'll be this guy!" Gray said passing a toy roughly to his mom.

"Okay, but remember I can't play for too long because I want to do some reading and I was thinking about doing some baking today." Mika explained.

Gray gave a slight nod as he continued setting up his toys.

Finally he finished arranging the figures around and he turned and started playing with Mika with them.

Mika was surprised at how much story Gray kept bringing into their game with many ongoing plots and surprise bad guys and traitors or bad guys turning good, so many different plans Gray had put into the game.

It made Mika wonder whether Gray had most of it planned out ahead of time or if he was just getting really good at improvising.

Suddenly the front door swung open.

"Daddy!" Gray shouted as he suddenly sat up in excitement.

"Hey ya Gray. How's it going here?" Silver asked as he took off his boots and jacket and walked to where Mika and Gray sat on the floor.

"It's been okay. Haven't been able to get much done today though." Mika answered sighing halfheartedly.

"Uh oh...well luckily I don't have to go out again today unless you need anything." Silver said, glancing suspiciously at Gray, who had an oddly mischievous deep-in-thought sort of look on his face. "Need any help?" Silver asked glancing back to Mika.

"I was hoping to do some reading and maybe some baking today, but Gray keeps wanting to play with me..." Mika explained.

"Why didn't you just tell him you'll play later?" Silver asked in confusion.

"I did." Mika replied.

"Mommy...we have to finish our game." Gray whined impatiently pulling on his mother's sleeve.

Mika shrugged helplessly and turned back to the five-year-old.

"Just a little longer, okay?" Mika reminded him.

"But we've barely played long at all!" Gray protested, his eyes starting to get that familiar sad look again.

Silver suddenly felt more suspicious of their young son.

"Mika, when did this game start?" Silver asked her.

Mika thought for a moment before glancing up at Silver.

"Just after lunch I believe." Mika replied.

"What time did you two eat?" Silver asked.

"Twelve-thirty or something like that." Mika replied.

Silver smiled and shook his head.

"Okay Gray, how did you manage to make your mom play with you for two hours?" Silver asked the boy whose eyes suddenly went wide in surprise.

"Two hours?" Mika said, quickly getting up to check the time.

She checked the clock only to find that Silver was right. She knew it had been awhile but she had been having fun for most of it.

Silver laughed and Gray smirked up at the two before quickly turning away.

"Did you really not realize? You two must've been having a lot of fun!" Silver asked still laughing.

"Silver, I guess we lost track of time. I really need to start those cookies." Mika said as she started to get up.

"Cookies?" Gray said suddenly perking up in interest.

"Not until after dinner Gray. You still haven't eaten all your healthy food from lunch." Mika replied to the disappointed looking boy.

"But mama! It was yucky!" Gray declared.

"We're not going to go over it again. If you eat your healthy food then you can have a cookie, okay?" Mika explained gently but firmly.

Gray's expression shifted into that familiar sad look. Mika felt suddenly like she was maybe being too strict.

"Gray," she started.

Silver glanced at his son and then back at his wife.

"Hey Mika?" Silver started.

"Yeah?" Mika replied turning to Silver.

"I'll hang out with the little guy, go have some time to yourself okay?" Silver offered.

"He'll never let you stop playing." Mika warned him.

"I'm not worried." Silver said casually.

Mika bit her lip slightly and hesitated. After a moment she nodded and turned to walk into the kitchen after picking up her novel.

Silver glanced down at the pouting little boy.

"Come on. You made her play for two hours kiddo." Silver informed him.

"I know. But I don't want her to go! I wanna keep playing with her!" Gray exclaimed.

"She needs some time to herself for a little while." Silver explained.

"You mean she doesn't want to play with me anymore?" Gray asked with the most heartbroken look on his face that Silver had even seen.

"That's not it!" Silver argued.

"Mommy hates me..." Gray said on the verge of tears.

"Mika doesn't hate you!" Silver exclaimed frantically.

"Yeah...!" Gray cried.

Hearing all the noise Mika rushed into the room.

"What's wrong? Why's he so upset?" Mika asked kneeling down next to them.

"Uh..." Silver stammered hesitantly.

Mika reached for Gray but he pulled away slightly.

"Gray, what's wrong?" She asked.

"You're not going to play with me anymore." Gray replied sadly.

"I'll play again with you sometime." Mika told him, unsure as to why he was so upset.

"Why do you not love me anymore?" Gray cried.

"I never stopped loving you Gray, I just can't play right now." Mika explained.

"Mika doesn't hate you Gray." Silver said.

"Only because you don't like me anymore." Gray argued in response to Mika.

"That's not true!" Mika exclaimed pulling the boy into a hug. "I'll play with you again later, okay? I'll never hate you. That isn't even possible." Mika said.

Gray glanced up at his mom teary-eyed.

"So you will play with me?" The boy asked quietly.

Mika felt suspicion rise inside her at the strange look the boy was giving her. It was that familiar look again...

"I'll play with you again later." Mika answered as she hugged him tightly and got up to leave.

Gray pouted but didn't cry.

"Wanna play with daddy now?" Silver asked unsure as to whether he was asking too soon or not.

"No. I wanna play with mommy." Gray replied quickly, the sadness he had just been showing was mysteriously gone.

Silver winced at how easily Gray said that, the boy's words still stinging. Gray didn't want to play with him today. The way he had said it so laid-back and casual made it hurt all the worse.

"Why don't you want to play with me?" Silver asked, feeling hurt.

"I wanna play with mom." Gray said simply.

"But Gray..." Silver stammered sadly.

Suddenly Silver felt super worried. What if since he'd gone out to work a lot lately Gray was getting more attached to Mika and was losing interest in him?

Silver couldn't stand the thought of his little boy not wanting to do anything with him again! What could he do to fix this?

"Gray...please play with me?" Silver begged. "You were in the middle of a big game and you looked like you were having so much fun. Just look at all the chaos you caused with your mom. Maybe it could be just as fun if I play with you?" Silver practically begged.

Gray seemed to think about it.

Silver felt some fragile-feeling hope rising inside of him.

Gray's oddly casual expression that had just awhile ago looked super sad, turned into a mischievous smirk.

"Okay..." Gray agreed as he crawled closer to Silver.

Silver smiled but watched hesitantly at his son's odd behaviour.

Gray moved until he was right beside Silver's ear.

Silver listened carefully hoping Gray wouldn't accidentally talk really loudly into his ear.

"Only if you make a promise." Gray whispered.

"And what's that?" Silver asked quietly.

"You have to promise I can have one of mommy's cookies today." Gray whispered in reply.

"That's all?" Silver asked suspiciously.

"And you have to eat my veggies." Gray added quickly.

"But Gray... I can't do that!" Silver declared. "You have to eat healthy so you can grow up to be strong."

"But daddy...it was yucky and I wanna eat the cookie when it's nice and warm..." Gray explained quietly.

"How about this," Silver suggested. "You eat your veggies and I convince your mom to give you _two_ cookies. What do you say?" Silver asked quietly.

Gray seemed to think it over for a long moment this time.

He really didn't want to eat those vegetables.

"Fiiiine..." Gray agreed reluctantly.

"Great!" Silver exclaimed happily. "What should we play?" Silver asked the five-year-old.

Gray got up and started rummaging through his toy box again.

He glanced back at Silver and shrugged.

"Hey Gray?" Silver asked as he joined in the search.

"Yeah?" Gray answered.

"Why did you get so upset when your mom was trying to do something else? If you hadn't let her go she wouldn't be making cookies." Silver asked.

"I wanted to play with her..." Gray replied slowly. "And I was super bored."

Gray then smiled innocently and then turned back to the toy box.

Silver blinked. Something was strange about Gray's behaviour all right, and he was sure Mika had been noticing it too. But the question was, what exactly was it Gray was doing? And what did the funny looks he kept displaying mean?

"Want to play dress up?" Silver asked pulling out a few Gray-sized costumes, along with a few hats that were a bit bigger.

Gray glanced at the costumes and then jumped up and down in excitement.

"Okay." Silver said looking through the costumes. "What should we dress up as?"

"Hmm..." Gray muttered as he looked through the costumes.

"I know! Want to be knights and play with swords again? You always love our little sword fights." Silver suggested.

"Uh...I kind of just want to eat cookies." Gray said shrugging.

"Hmmm...okay..." Silver muttered as he searched the bin for something else. "Ah ha!" Silver exclaimed. "I think I know a great game we can play." Silver told him.

"What is it?" Gray asked excitedly.

"We could be pirates! And we can go treasure hunting and use swords and..." Silver suggested. "And we can use our awesome acting and trickery to steal two cookies for you after you eat your vegetables from your mother." Silver explained. "What do you say? Want to join me crew?" Silver asked putting on the captain hat doing his best pirate impression.

"Yeah!" Gray exclaimed.

"You mean, 'aye aye captain." Silver corrected playfully as he picked up a green bandana and tied it around the five-year-old's head and turning it into a pirate hat.

"Aye captain!" Gray shouted excitedly.

"Ready to set sail?" Silver asked.

Gray nodded eagerly.

Silver smiled and led Gray around the house in search of the perfect place to pretend was their pirate ship.

Eventually the two decided that the bed was a worthy pirate ship, and they began adding some final touches to make it more boat-like.

"Okay, I think it's ready." Silver said taking a seat on the bed.

"One more thing..." Gray said from where he had been sitting on the floor since they had gone upstairs to set it all up.

"Yeah?" Silver asked.

"This!" Gray exclaimed holding up a scribbly picture of a Pirate flag.

"Awesome! Can't believe I didn't think of that." Silver said smiling at his son proudly, despite how scribbly the drawing was.

Leaving the markers still spread out on the bedroom floor, Gray rose to his feet and climbed up onto his and his parents bed that they all still shared. Gray glanced around for a good place to put the flag and then pointed to the spot.

"Alright. Hold on tight!" Silver said as he lifted the boy and helped him tape the flag up.

"Do we need anything else?" Silver asked Gray as they both stood back to inspect their creation.

Gray thought for a moment before answering his dad.

"Yeah." Gray replied.

"What's that?" Silver asked curiously.

"Mommy's cookies." Gray answered.

Silver smiled but couldn't help but wish Gray would think more about their game and less about Mika's cookies. But he couldn't really blame the kid. Mika did know how to make some really yummy cookies.

"We'll steal that treasure soon. First we have to sail to a faraway land." Silver assured him. "You want to be captain?" Silver asked offering his hat.

Gray shook his head no.

"You're the captain, but I'm gonna be when I'm bigger. But I wanna help steer." Gray answered.

"Okay then kiddo." Silver agreed, but then he paused.

Gray was already sitting on the bed holding onto the pretend steering wheel they had set up.

"Wait a minute...I hope that's not mutiny you're planning for this future where you apparently get bigger." Silver joked.

Gray glanced at Silver in slight confusion.

"Never mind." Silver muttered as he sat down onto the pirate ship/bed beside his son.

Gray grinned and began playing with the pretend steering wheel again.

"Watch out for the rocks!" Silver cried dramatically.

Gray quickly turned another way.

"Go fix the sails!" Gray shouted.

"All fixed!" Silver called back over the loud imaginary storm.

"Good job!" Gray praised happily.

"Thanks." Silver replied.

"Dad? I mean captain...you can take the steering wheel while I be the lookout." Gray said.

"Aye. Savvy." Silver replied switching spots with Gray.

"Dad?" Gray called over the imaginary storm.

"Yeah?" Silver asked as he pretended to steer the ship.

"What's 'savvy' mean?" Gray asked.

"It means understood or understand. Things like that Gray." Silver replied.

"Oh..." Gray said slowly. "What about commandeer? You used that one before I think." Gray said only just managing to pronounce it correctly.

"That's quite a big word, isn't it?" Silver chuckled. "That's a big word that means basically to steal."

"We stole the ship? You said it when we were makin' the boat." Gray reminded him.

"Yeah, you're right, I remember." Silver answered.

"We commandeered this ship from mama!" Gray announced.

"And now it belongs to us!" Silver said with an evil laugh.

"Yeah!" Gray cheered, followed by an attempt to copy Silver's evil laugh.

The two were quiet for awhile as they pretended to continue their journey until Gray broke the silence.

"Hey captain?" Gray started.

"Aye first mate?" Silver said with a great pirate imitation.

"I'm hungry..." Gray whined laying on his back on the bed.

"I'll get you your pirate food from the galley then, first mate." Silver said still making his voice sound as much like a pirate as he could.

"Thanks captain..." Gray muttered, hungry and not sure what a 'galley' was.

Silver nodded and walked out of the room and down the stairs towards the kitchen.

"You two sound like you're having fun." Mika said smiling.

"Those cookies are starting to smell great." Silver replied smiling back at her.

Mika smiled mischievously.

"Only after you eat your healthy food." She told him.

Silver grinned.

"Speaking of healthy food, where's Gray's leftovers? He's hungry so I thought I'd try to get him to eat it." Silver explained.

"In the fridge, right there." Mika pointed it out. "But good luck getting him to eat it. He was terrible at trying to eat it earlier." She said.

"I'll find a way." Silver said as he took the food and reheated it.

"Good luck..." Mika said.

"If I do it, I get extra cookies right?" Silver asked as he picked up the plate of food.

Mika shook her head.

"If I do that then it'll be harder to keep Gray from trying to get extra too." She said.

"Heheh...I suppose...but you know, we really do love your baking." Silver said sheepishly.

"I know. And thanks." Mika said smiling, although she eyed Silver suspiciously for his strange behaviour.

"Well I better go feed my crew." Silver said, remembering he had forgotten to take the pirate hat off when he walked into the kitchen.

Mika silently chuckled and then nodded.

"I'll call you when the cookies are ready after they've cooled a bit." Mika told him.

"Thanks Mika." Silver said as he hurried upstairs with the plate of vegetables, that had slight remains of potato patties that he figured Gray had already eaten earlier.

Finally Silver got back upstairs and sat on the bed beside Gray.

Gray sat up and as soon as he saw the food he quickly hid under the blankets.

"Come on Gray, we had a deal remember?" Silver reminded him.

"I wanted mom's cookies...not the veggies." Gray whined.

"I know, but we pirates have to eat our healthy food so that we have enough energy to steal cookies from the worlds finest bakeries." Silver explained in his pirate voice.

"But...that stuff is yucky." Gray whined his face pressed against the pillows.

"How about a contest." Silver suggested, trying to get Gray to get competitive and perhaps enough that he'd try to eat his food. "We can try to see who can eat their healthy food first."

Gray glanced up at Silver his expression blank.

"Yuck!" Gray protested after deciding Silver was serious and wasn't acting.

"Come on Gray. It's the only way you'll be able to eat some of your mom's cookies. Don't you want to go steal some treasure when we get to the island?" Silver asked.

"I'm strong. I don't need yucky stuff!" Gray argued.

"It's good for you. It'll make you so strong. And Mika won't even be able to catch you if you sneak really carefully when we go to steal the cookies." Silver insisted.

Gray got up and glanced up at Silver his eyes sad and pleading looking.

"You're supposed to be the captain, not a baddie...don't make me eat that stuff...it...it...it's probably poisoned by baddies!" Gray declared sniffing slightly.

Silver frowned slightly at the boy. Here he was doing it again. The weird sad looks. Why was he doing this? Was Gray genuinely upset like he appeared to be? Or was all this drama he'd been causing all day been him using his acting skills against Mika and him? Was Gray's acting really getting that much better? Was it really getting so good that he could _make himself cry_?

Silver wasn't sure. Gray had seemed like he had really believed Mika hated him earlier. The boy had been crying, hadn't he?

Could someone as young as Gray even be able to fake all of that?

Silver didn't know. But he knew they should probably try to figure it out before the five-year-old could manipulate his parents into doing everything he wanted when they had to do what was best for Gray and not just what he wanted.

Not that Gray could possibly get _that_ much control over them.

"It ain't poisoned Gray. I'll prove it." Silver said, and he eat one of Gray's vegetables.

Gray seemed to hesitate worriedly as Silver did it.

"Would your mom poison either of us? Would she even poison anyone?" Silver asked, knowing that such a thing could never happen.

Not in a million years.

"No..." Gray agreed. "But it's yucky..." He whined.

"You're right. It's not quite as yummy as other foods can be. But maybe if you'd actually give it a chance you'd learn it's not so bad. Or maybe you could even learn to like it." Silver suggested.

Gray pouted. Silver just smiled reassuringly at the boy.

"Please try to eat a little?" Silver asked.

Gray shook his head stubbornly.

Silver knew Gray was getting hungrier and eventually he would have to give in. No way he would get that stubborn about the vegetables. But he also figured that maybe, if he tried to be just as stubborn as Gray, then perhaps Gray would give in and eat his food so he could have cookies afterwards.

Now was time for a somewhat drastic approach to the situation, Silver decided.

"Please Gray?" Silver begged making his voice purposely sound extremely desperate and slightly upset.

Gray refused to look at him.

"Come on... I really need you to eat this..." Silver said making himself sound sad and desperate.

Gray glanced at him slightly, and strange look on his face.

It's working... Silver thought hopefully.

"Please just one bite?" Silver begged desperately.

Gray squeezed his eyes shut tightly, refusing to look at Silver.

"Please...I don't want your mom to be sad like I am that you won't try to eat the food she made you..." Silver added still acting sad.

Gray glanced at Silver slightly, his expression unsure.

Silver exaggerated a sad sigh as he picked up the plate of food as if he was going to take it back downstairs.

Gray glanced at him.

"Wait..." Gray murmured.

"Yeah?" Silver asked trying to sound disappointed still despite how he was thinking Gray was finally going to give in.

"I don't want mommy to be sad..." Gray said quietly sounding sad and worried.

Silver glanced as his son. Gray had been getting strangely sad often today, but something about this time seemed...more real? Yeah, that was it.

Silver eyed his young son as he walked over and sat down beside him.

"Or you..." Gray added sounding close to tears,

"Gray," Silver started.

He used his acting to hopefully get the boy to eat his lunch, not make him upset and worried about making his family sad.

Silver sighed sadly. He figured he might've gone too far with his acting this time.

"Look, your mom isn't going to be mad about you not eating it or even for not liking it. We just need you to eat it because we could get upset if you don't eat enough to stay healthy and grow up strong." Silver explained.

Gray glanced up at his father.

Silver pulled the little boy into a hug. When Silver released Gray, the little boy glanced down at the plate of leftovers in the man's hand.

He made a grossed out face but then he reached for the fork.

"You're getting too hungry to keep refusing to eat it now huh?" Silver asked.

Gray just stared at the food hesitantly. Silver smiled at the boy encouragingly and picked up the fork for Gray, and scooped some food onto it.

"I'm sorry it doesn't look the most appealing, first mate. With our long voyages we've run short on rations." Silver said in his pirate voice.

Gray glanced at at his dad and smirked. Silver smiled back brightly.

Silver held out the fork to the boy.

Gray hesitated.

"What be wrong, first mate?" Silver asked in his pirate voice.

"Does it have bad soup in it? You're not a good cook captain." Gray asked cautiously.

Silver chuckled and shook his head. Would his little boy ever let him live that one down? He hadn't known Gray would trust his acting to the point he'd eaten the mud and leaves and everything they found around the front yard soup.

"I promise I didn't do anything to it besides heat it up." Silver assured him. "Besides, your mom made this." Silver reminded him.

Gray nodded slightly, and hesitantly leaned forwards and took a bite.

"Is it really as bad as you thought it'd be?" Silver asked.

Gray stayed silent for a moment.

"Come on, it looks pretty good. I know it's not Mika's cookies, but it's still yummy looking." Silver added.

Gray turned away in annoyance as he tried to eat the vegetables.

Silver smiled at his son's actions. Clearly Gray didn't overly mind the vegetables that much after he got too hungry to be picky and stubborn about it, or he was worried Mika would get upset or Silver would get upset or pull another acting stunt. Either that or the boy was just hoping for Mika's freshly baked cookies, which of course he could have. Even though there was still the matter of stealing Gray an extra one...

There was a long silence until it was broken by Gray.

"Do you smell that?" Gray exclaimed suddenly.

"Smells like Mika's cookies are almost done." Silver answered smiling.

"Let's go get the treasure captain!" Gray shouted, and then he leapt recklessly off the bed nearly falling over, as Silver reached to catch him, but Gray managed to stay up and ran out of the bedroom.

"Gray! Wait!" Silver called.

Silver glanced down at Gray's plate, and was surprised to find it completely empty. All the vegetables were gone.

"Gray? Did you hide your food?" Silver called to the boy as he got up and checked under the bedsheets and then under the bed.

Gray glanced back at him coming over to Silver. Silver glanced at the boy suspiciously. Gray gave him a playful smirk that looked amused.

"Did you hide your veggies?" Silver asked suspiciously.

"Yup." Gray replied smirking mischievously.

Silver blinked, surprised at the quick response. Wasn't he worried about getting in trouble for wasting all his food?

"Where did ya hide it?" Silver asked.

"Guess, captain dad." Gray answered smirking mischievously.

Something about the five-year-old's tone seemed almost...mocking...?

Silver considered all the places Gray may have easily been able to sneak the food while he hadn't been watching.

Silver felt a pang of worry as he wondered if it was under Mika or his pillow. That wouldn't be a pleasant surprise when they went to bed.

Silver smiled to himself, he realized that maybe a year ago he would be totally freaking out, and would've probably went to Mika for help. But now he was more confident than he used to be, even if he still got worried or unsure of things with his young son still sometimes.

"You...you didn't put it under the pillows or sheets did you?" Silver asked the boy.

"No!" Gray laughed. "I don't wanna sleep with my veggies."

"Oh, right. Of course." Silver mused.

Gray still slept in his parents bed with them. Of course he didn't want his dinner under the blankets and pillows.

That should've been obvious. Silver thought.

"Where did you put your food?" Silver asked.

But Gray simply smirked and started running down the stairs.

"Hey! Wait! Come back!" Silver called as he chased after the five-year-old.

Soon they reached the bottom of the stairs. Silver sighed in relief when Gray reached the bottom safely, since the little boy had been running and hadn't listened when Silver told him to stop or slow down.

Gray turned to Silver and put a finger to his lips, making a hushing sound.

Silver nodded slightly.

Gray adjusted his pirate bandana slightly and Silver smiled nervously, wondering how he was supposed to keep his promise to give Gray two cookies even though Mika sounded like she didn't want Gray to have any more than one, and only if he had finished his food...

"Gray..." Silver whispered.

Gray glanced at the black-haired man.

"Where did you put your food? You can't have cookies without finishing your food." Silver reminded the black-haired boy.

Gray smirked and pointed to his mouth. Silver eyed him suspiciously, unsure as to whether the boy was being honest or not.

Had he really just eaten the food really fast because he smelled the cookies? Or was he trying to trick Silver?

"Ready captain?" Gray whispered.

Silver shrugged, but nodded and walked with the boy towards the kitchen. Gray followed behind Silver until they reached just outside of the kitchen.

"We'll need someone to distract Mika. Or...the person guarding the treasure. Savvy first mate?" Silver explained.

"Aye." Gray said, and then the little boy pushed on Silver's legs trying to force him into the kitchen.

"No first mate. I think I should do the stealing and you do the distracting. She could never resist talking with a cute little guy like you. She probably won't even realize you're trying to steal from her, so we'd be less likely to get caught." Silver pointed out.

Gray blushed slightly and turned away awkwardly at being called cute by his dad.

After a moment Gray shook his head.

"I wanna steal the cookie..." Gray pouted.

"But Gray...what if they're hot or if there's a trap? I'm captain remember? I think this is the best plan we can follow this time." Silver explained.

"I know...I know..." Gray whispered in annoyance. "But you said I was good at being sneaky." Gray protested.

Silver smiled at the boy.

"You are." Silver assured him. "But Mika is also very smart too, and she could catch us and we'd be locked in jail without any cookies!"

Finally, Gray nodded in understanding after thinking for a moment. Silver smiled and ruffled the boy's hair playfully. Gray seemed half annoyed with the action but was also smiling happily as his dad raffled his hair, so Silver assumed he liked it more than he disliked it. Either that or it depended more on Silver's timing of when he ruffles the boy's hair.

"Ready?" Silver asked.

Gray nodded excitedly. He looked like he was having trouble containing his excitement and energy.

Maybe Mika was right about extra cookies being a bad idea. But there was no going back now, unless he could prove that Gray had hid his food somewhere other than his mouth.

Silver and Gray slowly snuck into the kitchen.

"They look so nummy!" Gray said, his whispered slightly louder with his excitement as he stood on his tippy toes to get a good enough look at the cookies.

"Shh..." Silver hushed as he hesitated.

"Why ain't ya getting the cookies?" Gray asked.

"I think the cookies are probably cool now Silver!" Mika, who was in the living room called up the stairs.

Silver startled, and glanced behind him.

He could hear Mika approaching the kitchen.

Gray looked up at Silver, making some kind of sad-puppy-eyes expression. But unlike when Silver pulled the trick, Gray's version had always seem far more effective with anyone he used it on.

Sneaky little guy.

Silver smiled at him gently, ruffled his hair, and quickly walked towards where Mika was approaching.

"Oh, there you are." Mika said as she saw Silver.

"Yeah." Silver replied.

"The cookies are probably ready. Did you manage to get Gray to finish his food?" Mika asked.

"Well..." Silver started scratching the back of his head with one hand awkwardly. "It's kind of a complicated story... You see..."

Gray watched his parents as Silver explained the food situation to Mika. Gray smiled and shook his head side to side. He'd eaten his food, despite it not being the yummiest. Although it hadn't been as bad as he had thought it would be.

Gray wasn't sure why Silver was so unsure as to whether he'd finished his food or not, but he supposed it didn't really matter as long as they could still have their cookies.

Gray looked up at the pan of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies his mom had made, and thought his mom was probably the best cook in the entire world!

Besides the occasional gross thing. But even when things weren't yummy it was never as bad as the soup his dad and him had made that Silver had wanted him to try.

Gray found himself still staring at the cookies, and the smell of them made his mouth water.

He glanced behind him at Silver and Mika. They were still talking.

Gray looked back at the cookies, and slowly stood on his tippy toes and reached for one of them.

Gray grasped one of the cookies, careful not to burn his hands on the hot pan.

Gray looked at his mom and dad cautiously to make sure they weren't watching him.

Smiling to himself, Gray reached up and took another cookie.

"He probably ate it then, and was probably just being silly about hiding it. If he said he hid it in his mouth he probably ate it." Mika reasoned.

"Aye." Silver replied in his pirate voice.

"You two having fun being pirates?" Mika asked.

Gray startled being careful to keep the cookies out of sight, except for the occasional moment he'd lift one to take a bite.

Yum... Gray thought excitedly. Mommy's cookies are the best!

"Well, yeah. Of course." Silver stammered. "Although..." He added nervously.

"What is it?" Mika asked.

"I sorta promised the kid he could have a second cookie because he ate his veggies...so we were going to steal one extra for him...you don't mind right?" Silver explained sheepishly.

Mika laughed.

"I'll have to lock you up for that, you filthy pirate." Mika replied playfully.

"Not if you can't catch me?" Silver offered, as he started to side-step away from his wife.

Mika smiled, but then turned to the kitchen where the cookies were.

"Silver?" Mika asked.

"Yeah?" Silver replied.

"Where's Gray?" She asked.

"Oh no." Silver exclaimed quickly turning to look near the cookies where he'd left the boy. "Where'd he go?" Silver exclaimed seeing that Gray was no longer there.

Gray smirked as he climbed up the staircase, with his bandana tied as a sack filled with the cookies he'd stolen.

After eating two plus his leftovers he was full, but he didn't want his parents to eat all the cookies before he could eat more of them, so he'd taken like five or seven of them in total, eating only two and smuggled the other ones upstairs in his pirate bandana.

Finally he reached the bedroom, and he quickly glanced around for somewhere that might be a good hiding place for his yummy treasure.

There was the bed, the bookshelf, he bedside table, and oops, his fluffy stuffed wolf or husky was on the floor.

Gray crawled over to his favourite toy, and picked it up and gave it a big hug.

"Did you fall outta bed?" Gray muttered quietly to the toy.

Gray smiled at the toy gently and untied his bandana and held out a chocolate chip cookie and pretended to feed the toy canine.

"You're a good boy." Gray whispered. "Aren't mommy's cookies the best?"

"Silver? Look." Gray heard his mom say from downstairs.

Silver went over to Mika and nodded in understanding at the sight of a piece of chocolate chip cookie that was on the stairs.

Silver smiled at Mika and they both started up the stairs.

Gray's eyes widened as he heard his parents approaching.

"We gotta hide the cookies, buddy." Gray whispered, snatching up the cookies and holding his toy clutched tightly against his chest.

Gray hurried and slipped under the bed and shoved tucked parts of the bandana in on the bed frame so it was somewhat hanging under the bed.

Gray smiled proudly at his work and slipped out from under the bed.

He rushed towards the bookshelf and pulled out a few of his favourite story books and started looking through them pretending to read them aloud to his toy husky or wolf, neither him nor his parents were sure which it was supposed to be.

"Gray?" Mika called as she entered the room with Silver.

"Yes mama?" Gray asked looking up at her smiling innocently.

Mika smiled back and came closer.

"How were the cookies?" Mika asked him casually.

"Super yum-" Gray started but trailed off realizing his mistake. "The yummy cookies are done?" Gray asked jumping to his feet in excitement.

Mika shook her head still smiling at her son's behaviour.

"Were they good?" Mika asked smirking playfully at her son.

"They were awesome!" Silver replied instead from behind Mika.

Recognizing the strange sound to her husbands voice, Mika turned to Silver and frowned slightly.

Gray's smiled widened at the sight of his dad munching on several of his mom's cookies. He had one half eaten one in his hand, and two more in his other hand.

"Silver..." Mika started stepping closer to Silver who was starting to look slightly nervous. "You haven't eaten dinner and here you are stealing cookies? Three of them too?" Mika observed.

Gray started to laugh.

"I couldn't resist...?" Silver offered. "Come on, your cookies are awesome! I had to have one..." Silver glanced down at the cookies. "Or three..." He added smiling innocently.

"Why you..." Mika started.

"Pirate?" Gray offered.

"Hey! I thought you were on my side Gray?" Silver asked making a face of betrayal.

Gray winked at Silver, who frowned slightly.

"You're such a naughty little pirate." Mika finished.

"Little? Mika I'm bigger than both you and Gray." Silver protested.

Mika smiled jokingly at him. Gray smirked at them both.

"I know!" Gray exclaimed.

"What's that Gray?" Mika asked.

"Daddy's little because he acts littler than you and me! He's more of a little kid than me." Gray replied.

"What...hey!" Silver exclaimed shaking his head. "You're much smaller than me, and when do I act like a little kid littler than you, Chibi?" Silver asked.

Gray shrugged.

"All the time really." He answered.

Mika and Silver glanced at each other and smiled. Silver brought another cookie to his mouth and Mika frowned slightly.

Silver made a sad puppy face at her. Mika's eyes widened in realization.

"So that's were he got it and what he was doing." Mika exclaimed.

"Hm?" Silver hummed, his mouth full of cookies.

"All day he's been making these strange faces and has been pulling all these really realistic acting tricks." Mika explained.

"I remember." Silver answered nodding. "What about it?" Silver asked.

"I think he's picked up that stuff from you. He's definitely a talented actor...but I think he's learned it from you." She accused smiling at the man.

Silver shrugged and smiled innocently. Mika glared playfully.

Silver held out one of the cookies to Mika, who smiled, but accepted it, dropping the playful glare. Then she turned to Gray.

"It'll be dinner time in an hour or so...no more cookies until after we eat dinner, and only one, since you had one or two." Mika told him.

"Maybe we should count what's there and find out how many he stole." Silver suggested.

"You mean _we_ stole." Gray added. "It was your idea to commandeer the treasure. Or...mom's cookies. They're so yummy! We should play pirates again soon!" Gray exclaimed.

Mike face palmed and playfully elbowed Silver. What was she going to do about those two and their games... At least when Mika played with Gray she didn't accidentally encourage stealing. She shook her head. Silver really was very childlike sometimes.

"Silver, I think you should maybe go with Gray when his first school year starts. I'm sure they can teach you two pirates how to use proper grammar and not to steal." Mika joked.

Gray burst into laughter.

"Hey! You two are so mean to me." Silver exclaimed, making himself look sad and hurt by their words.

"Yup. He got it from you alright." Mika said confidentially.

Gray and Silver glanced at each other smiling. After a moment Gray spoke up.

"Can we go play swords outside?" He asked his parents.

"Sure we can, Chibi." Silver replied.

"Let's go." Mika answered smiling.

The three went outside and took turns with the wooden swords, although Gray was only without a sword once when Silver and Mika had a sword fight, but even then Gray armed himself with a stick.

The three battled for the rest of the day, until they got tired and went inside for some dinner.

After dinner, Mika was surprised when Gray turned down the cookie she offered him. But it all made sense when she caught him up late in the night crawling under the bed and making munching sounds. When Silver found out he ended up eating a few, and they had to go brush their teeth again.

After that, Gray, Silver, and Mika, all went back to their bedroom and snuggled up comfortably together in their shared bed and went to sleep.


End file.
